It's been a long time since I have updated this blog. Well, surprise! I have gone through an entire pregnancy and given birth since then. Whoops. I can fill in the deets for you now that it's all a little less hectic.
I found out I was expecting my little one on March 5th, a Thursday. I had taken the day off work to spend time with my husband on his day off. The night before a huge system had blown through, dumping about a foot of snow on the ground, uncharacteristic for March here in the South. So, we were snowed in, and had all day to spend together.
At around 8 that morning, I woke to do my usual bathroom trip. For days up to this point I had been experiencing what I can only describe as these weird, intermittent, pinchy cramps. I took it as a weird start to aunt flo, but she had yet to arrive. (I should say here that I have always had long and irregular cycles, so I didn't actually expect that I was pregnant.) As it was steadily approaching day 60 of my cycle, I decided to waste a dollar store cheapie and test. I had always gotten negatives in the past, so I was anticipating the same on this day. I was in for a shock.
I busied myself with tidying the bathroom counter while I waited for the test to tell me what I was sure I already knew. A few minutes passed and I casually glanced at the test, already having the trash can open go toss the sure to be negative. Two lines. WHAT?! But, two line were not negative. I thought to myself that surely I had managed to get that mythical false positive. So, I tore open another test. I'm shaking and fighting the cat out of the bathroom as wait for my fate. Two lines again. Okay, well two tests can't lie. I'm pregnant...
I had to tell my husband. As it was quite early, my husband was still sleeping. I contemplated letting him wake on his own only briefly before I tore into the bedroom and rather loudly rummaged through my closet looking for the small gift I had stashed there almost a year before. I found it, and turned to wake my husband. In my mind I was gently waking him, asking him sweetly to open the gift I had for him. In reality, I was shaking and, in his words, I looked as if I had murdered someone and was shoving a box, possibly containing a body part, at his chest. He tentatively opened the box and pulled back the paper inside, revealing two small onesies with two of his favorite bands on them. (For the curious: Pearl Jam and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.) In his sleepy state, it took him several confused seconds to realize what I was trying to communicate with the small pieces of fabric he held.
"Is this? Are you?..." Yes. Yes. We collapsed into a hug crying together, both from happiness and shock. We then spent the entire day enjoying the snow and lazing about on our puffy little cloud of excitement.
I estimated that was only about 2 weeks post ovulation (charting symptoms, but not temperature). Fast forward a little over a month, and my doctor would confirm my date estimation within 3 days.
Pregnancy was pretty agreeable with me. I had morning sickness starting around 5-6 weeks. It was mild-ish, but I had just begun a new day job, so was miserable nonetheless. I had mild fatigue, almost no appetite (except cereal), and some mildly tender breasts. It was just, as my OB said, a textbook case of pregnancy.
Second trimester saw me into a slightly different experience. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, but my doctor wanted to see if I could control it with diet. I managed. My blood sugar levels were excellent. I cut out sodas, candy, pasta (which made me sick anyway) and most other sweets. I never took one pill for my blood sugar during my entire pregnancy. I had managed to work myself back into the low risk category. We also had our anatomy scan at 19 weeks, revealing that we were having a girl! We were so excited!
Third trimester saw little change in anything. I was still controlling my gestational diabetes with diet and had finally managed to gain back most of the weight I had lost in the first trimester. I ended up with a net weight gain of 0 lbs. My doctor said that was impressive, especially considering the diabetes. She also joked that in my chart was specifically written "rock star".
My pregnancy came to a blissful end at 37 weeks, 6 days when I gave birth to our amazing little daughter. It was the perfect close to a perfect journey.
Over the next few weeks, I intend to update more about what has gone on. "Stay tuned" for my full birth story, why I chose and loved my OB, and newb parenting 101 stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment